Staunton, Va. – April 30, 2009 – The American Shakespeare Center today announced that Ellen Brock and Joe Borzelleca, Jr., of Richmond are the recipients of its Robin Goodfellow Award.

Named for the iconic character also known as Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the honor is given for outstanding support of the American Shakespeare Center.

“We have had many people who have loved our work, but none more vociferously than Joe,” said ASC Director of Mission Ralph Alan Cohen. “We have had many people who have worked hard for us, but none more diligently than Ellen. We have had many people who have given generously to us, but none more generously than Joe and Ellen. We have had many people who have bet on us, but none more recklessly than Joe and Ellen. We have had many people who have disturbed their lives on our behalf, but none more fully than Joe and Ellen.”

Cohen presented the Goodfellow Award to Brock and Borzelleca at a ceremony at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton on April 25.

Husband-and-wife team of Brock and Borzelleca are both physicians who live in Richmond where they practice gynecology. They are active in healthcare advocacy organizations such as Planned Parenthood, and they have also traveled to Asia as volunteers to treat patients and train local physicians.

Together, they have served on the board of trustees of the ASC; sponsored a performance of the ASC on Tour for physicians in Richmond; provided housing to ASC actors free of charge near the Blackfriars Playhouse; and offered ongoing material support to the ASC over more than a decade.

“Joe and Ellen are the kind of people who make the human family rich by caring and working with all their might and love to tend both to the body and to the spirit of their fellow men and women,” said Cohen. “They are the miraculous DNA at the core of what we mean when we think in the most idealistic terms of what it means to be a citizen.”

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